Kirksville's Tanner Sparks is the KDE's Wrestler of the Year

Saturday

Mar 11, 2017 at 5:38 PM

Matthew Asher @masher_KDE

The road to any path typically features an innocuous starting point. For Kirksville senior Tanner Sparks, his path to claiming the Class 2 state title in this year’s 152-pound wrestling division, and being named the Daily Expresses Wrestler of the Year, began 12 years ago with a simple piece of paper given to him in kindergarten.

“I’ve been wrestling since I was six years old,” Sparks said. “I got into wrestling because one day at kindergarten my teacher gave me a wrestling sign-up (form). I put in my backpack and when I got home my parents took it out and signed me up.”

Sparks continued wrestling since that time and was able to end his high school career with a story-book ending in February by defeating Savannah senior Michael Hummer, 4-1 to finish his senior year with a 37-1 record. But the road to that elusive title wasn’t as cut and dry as he wanted as Sparks suffered numerous setbacks in high school, including not even qualifying for a medal as a junior despite finishing in fifth place as a sophomore.

For KHS coach James Alter who has been Sparks’ coach the last three seasons, he’s always been impressed with the focus that Sparks has shown.

“The past three years Tanner has always been that die-hard competitor,” Alter said. “He’s always had the mindset that he’s going to compete. His sophomore year he looked really strong and took fifth (place). We ran into a hiccup as a junior. He took second at district. He won the first round and then lost two matches back-t0-back. On paper if you look at that year he should have been in the finals. But things happen.

“To see him bounce back after that junior year, you can tell that was a wake-up call to him, it definitely flipped a switch for Tanner. He’s a talented kid that put in a lot of extra work. This year when Tanner stepped out on the mat we walked out each time with the determination that he was going to be the champ.”

The main difference between Sparks’ junior and senior seasons according to Tanner himself was simply confidence.

“Last year I didn’t go out there expecting to win,” Sparks said. “That’s the main difference from this year and last year. I did a lot of training and being reminded how good I really am. All the training gave me the confidence and I had a lot of people behind me saying I can do this. After a while I just bought in to it and the self-confidence finally kicked it. That helped me get that mindset when I went to state.”

The new confidence officially began for Sparks before his senior season officially began when he competed in a pre-season wrestling tournament, the Fall Brawl in Kansas City in October.

“I had a good showing and after that (one) I knew the state championship was a very real goal,” Sparks said. “Being able to put what I did in practice and how that transitioned from October at the Fall Brawl at Staley High School to the state title.”

It wasn’t just the mindset that Sparks gained from that tournament because he still had to put in the work during the regular season. With this being a rebuilding year for Kirksville wrestling, that simply meant Spark had to push himself even harder during the year.

“This year he faced a little adversity based on the type of competition he had training with,” Alter said. “Tanner was our standalone guy in the room. He set himself apart from everyone else. We were a young team this year but we didn’t have a lot in the room to compete with Tanner during practice. There was nobody in that room like Tanner Sparks. I think that made Tanner push himself more because he knew he had to push himself harder to get to the top.”

The work paid off as Sparks finished first in the district tournament and then dominated his first three competitors in the state tournament to reach the title match.

“Tanner scored bonus points in his first three matches at state and scored bonus in all his district matches,” Alter said. “He either scored a major decision or ended the match early and even in the state finals match, I think that 4-1 victory he dominated that entire match.”

With his high school wrestling career over, Sparks now looks forward to wrestling collegiately at Maryville. He previously said his goal is to end his college career with an NCAA title and then simply see what happens from that point on a turning “pro” in wrestling would be completely different from other traditional sports.

“If I get an NCAA title that’s great and if there’s an opportunity to wrestle past that I would take it,” Sparks said. “I love the sport. I’d put the training in for the Olympics. But if it doesn’t, my goal is to get a good job and make is successfully on my own. Whatever it is, being a wrestler, a coach, a parent or just as an adult is my goal to make it on my own with hard work. Whatever I do in life I want to be successful. So long as I’m happy with it, that’s what I want.”